Race and Ethnicity - Relevant Legislation

Race Relations Act 1976

The Race Relations Act 1976 makes it unlawful for a person to discriminate on racial grounds against another person. The Act defines racial grounds as including race, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origins and it covers education, employment, vocational training and access to goods, facilities and services.

The legislation defines four main types of racial discrimination: direct, indirect, victimisation and harassment.

Direct race discrimination occurs when a person has been treated less favourably on racial grounds than others in similar circumstances eg where someone from a different racial group who, in similar circumstances, has been, or would have been, treated more favourably.

Racist abuse and harassment are forms of direct discrimination.

Indirect racial discrimination may fall into one of two categories - the first is on grounds of colour or nationality and the second is on grounds of race, ethnic or national origin.

Examples:

Preventing a student enrolling at the school because they were Asian or white would be considered to be direct race discrimination.

It would be indirect race discrimination for a school to have a rule that pupils must not wear headgear. This could exclude Sikh men and boys who wear a turban, or Jewish men or boys who wear a yarmulke, in accordance with practice within their racial group.

The use of offensive names/name calling based on a student’s ethnic origin would be harassment.

For more information about the law on race have a look at the EHRC website

Public sector duty

Public sector duty: The race equality duty was introduced into legislation in the Race Relations (amendment) Act 2000. It requires public authorities to:

Eliminate unlawful racial discrimination;

Promote equality of opportunity; and

Promote good relations between people of different racial groups.

Under the duty, all schools and further and higher education institutions must produce a race equality policy which is a written statement of their policy for promoting race equality. They should monitor the impact of the policy and action plans arising from the policy and report on developments annually.

Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006

The Act introduced a new criminal offence of stirring up racial hatred against a person on racial or religious grounds.

Human Rights Act 1998

The Human Rights Act 1998 has sixteen basic rights which affect all aspects of human rights, from freedom from torture and killing to individual rights in everyday life. It also includes the right not to be treated differently because of your race, religion, sex, political views or any other status, unless it can be objectively justified. Further information can be obtained from the EHRC website.

Equality Bill

Current disability legislation may be replaced in 2010 when the Government hopes to receive Royal Assent for the Equality Bill. The new law (which seeks to introduce a single Equality Act covering a range of equality areas) is likely to come into force from Autumn 2010. For more information see: